September Stitch from Stash and Pie

Starting with Pie as usual:

As I mentioned in my last post, I got to 14 days on Discworld and decided to keep going until the end of the month  with it.  I reached a good finishing point this afternoon.

Here's where I was last month:

And here's where I am now:

I worked on the piece of paper and the flying eyeball for IHSW:

And then moved down to the landmass and a lot of backstitching mountains; The Rammerock and The Blade Mountains:

Great Outdoors

First introduced as a concept in The Compleat Discworld Atlas, the Great Outdoors fleshes out a hitherto great big void on the old Discworld Mapp running from the Rammerock Mountains and NoThingfjord rimward out to the sea widdershins of Kythia. It covers some two thousand miles of open space, and is described as a patchwork haven of many disparate refugee groups fleeing from trouble or persecution elsewhere on the Disc; possibly a place to bring your tired and huddling masses who are yearning to breathe free, sundry wretched refuse of assorted teeming shores, and those who are generally homeless and tempest-tost. Or who have simply had it up to here with the storied pomp of ancient lands and all the grief it's capable of causing.

The religious, ethnic and linguistic groupings are many and varied, ranging from The Very, Very, Very Plain Omnians of the Slaked Plains to refugees from Borogravia who fled over the border to excape Nugganism and conscription into the endless wars. They settled along the line of the New Kneck River, which apparently does not move much, a point in its favour. Dwarfs and humans from NoThingfjord fled here and set up the nearest thing to a capital city, New Nothing, to escape interminable and compulsory Sagas. Apparently ferocious natives live here too, who don't go a bundle on incursions from palefaces.

There is no government as known elsewhere and no common currency: a complex trading and barter system takes its place. The people are described as linked by a common deep paranoia, mistrust of authority and slowness to accept strangers. Hmm.

Annotation

Idiosyncratic religious groups. Refugees fleeing persecution. Economic migrants. A hardy self-reliant people with a paranoid streak and a distrust of excessive government. Hmm. What was it that was said many years ago about no part of the Discworld resembling any part of North America, by express command... somewhere in here there must be a settlement called Power Cable...

Source: L-Space

This copy of the Cover Page shows how many pages and partial pages I have stitched and how far I have to go:

I've got about six full pages and nine half pages to go, but a lot of those pages are full coverage and the two figures are going to take a long while too.

You've already seen both My Lovely Sewing Tools and Summer Night a couple of times so I won't show them again.  Or the still unfinished Dragon Dreams Ornament.  But I do have Stash to show you.  I've been doing Stitch From Stash every year since it began except one (I had a big Birthday that year and wanted to splurge).  I always keep to my budget except for one month - September.  But luckily Birthday money is excluded from the calculations so I actually have a zero spend to be entered.  But here I can show you some of what I bought.

September
Chromatic Alchemy	£18.00
Plum St Sampler Fox Few	£8.00
CCN Main Street x 6	£28.50
HoD Scary Apothecaryx3	£14.25
Crafty Kitten	£17.95
Total	£86.70

The Chromatic Alchemy fabric is for the Scary Apothecary series and the Crafty Kitten fabric is for a Mirabilia I plan to start next year.  I don't have either of the fabrics yet, there is usually a 4-6 week wait but I'm not in a hurry.

The charts all came from Peakside Needlecraft.  Great prices and fast service.  I ordered at 2.30pm and got the despatch email by 3.15pm.  They arrived the next day.

This is what I bought:

I bought three of the Scary Apothecary for my friend and three for me last time.  Now I have the final three and we will swap once we have stitched the ones we own.  The Plum Street Samplers is adorable.  I have seen several of the animal piles and not been interested but this one was irresistible.

I bought three of Main Street previously and Vickie sent me the Gazebo.  So now I have the final six.  I have a cunning plan to do a conversion for these.

Finally, there will be a Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop as usual this year. I am sure you all know how it works but for those who need a reminder - here's a link to last year's

2018 Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop

If you want to take part, just leave a comment here or email me if you are a "no reply" person. I need an email address for you to take part in this hop.

September WIPocalypse Finishing Style and TUSAL

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings

Each month we have to share the projects we want to complete before the End Of The World.  

Since 2011 I have chosen a number of projects to focus on that year, starting with my "11 in '11" and increasing to "19 in '19" for this year.  You can find the full list here.

This month I stitched on four of my list and had two finishes:

1. Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs

stitched on 32 count Murano custom-dyed by Sparklies

The Mappe is posing with my TUSAL jar for September

2. . My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez

stitched on 40 count White linen

3. Summer Night by Just Nan 

stitched on 28 count Jobelan in Dragon Shades from Polstitches

4. 25th Anniversary Cameo by Mirabilia

stitched on random 28 count hand-dyed evenweave

Measi always gives us a topic to discuss too.

September – What finishing style have you never tried but would love to do?

I have tried a lot of different finishing techniques over the years, from frames to pillows, scrapbooks to exploding books but one thing I have never made is a biscornu.  Possibly because I am not sure what I would do with one - they look like dust catchers to me!  But I have a chart for a Just Nan one so maybe that will be my first!

One thing I really want to make is something I saw on the Needlework Galleria FB page.  They called it a "StitchTangle" and it was a flexible stitched piece you could rotate to make four different pictures appear.  They used a tree in changing seasons as the piece.  I've not seen it since and the video clip I saved no longer exists.

The correct name is Hexagonal Kaleidocycle or hexaflexagon and you can see one in action here - Polyhedra.net - hexagonal-kaleidocycle

The lovely people at Galleria replied to my message and told me the design is called Turn, Turn, Turn and is by Noteworthy Needle - the video is here.



Finally, there will be a Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop as usual this year.  I am sure you all know how it works but for those who need a reminder - here's a link to last year's

2018 Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop

If you want to take part, just leave a comment here or email me if you are a "no reply" person.  I need an email address for you to take part in this hop.

September Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

For this SAL I should be showing the monthly project for the Christmas Ornie Blog. Unfortunately I haven't quite finished it yet!

I did complete the second Word in the Jessica Savage series from Cross Stitcher magazine.  This one is Accept from issue

stitched over 1 on 25 count blue evenweave

I finished another Just Nan small - Butterfly Welcome:

stitched on 28 count Colonial Blue evenweave

I will try get that one FFO'd for Rachel's SAL on the 10th October

The next Just Nan in line was a Christmas one - Christmas Friends:

stitched on 28 count beige evenweave

I did a little bit more on that and then felt the need for a new start!  This is one from my "19 in '19" list - Nora Corbett's 25th Anniversary Cameo:

stitched on random 28 count hand-dyed evenweave

That seems to be the lot for Smalls this month.  

Finally, I have already stitched my 14 days for my Discworld Mappe but I'm going to carry on with it for the last 3 days of the month as I won't be stitching it next month.  Why not?  Because it's Dark October!  Michelle Cozyegg and her friend Emily Eclectic Possessions started this a few years back.  The idea is that you stitch dark and spooky stuff all October.  Last year I used the Tiny Decisions App to choose my project for each day and stitched 6 different designs with 3 finishes.  This year I plan to focus on Nora Corbett's Raven and my Enchanted Alphabet conversion.  Add in a daily stitch on Primitive Needle's Mystic Sampler and maybe a Just Nan Mouse or two.  If you're on Facebook I have added a daily event to the Hallowe'en Cross Stitching group - 

Hallowe'en Cross Stitching

September IHSW

IHSW or International Hermit and Stitch Weekend always starts on the third Friday of the month.  It's a chance to lock yourself away and focus on your stitching for the weekend.  You can take part on your blog or via the Facebook page.  Links at the bottom of this post.

Here's where I was on Friday morning:

Here's the part I worked on this weekend:

I completed the piece of paper with the dedication, added some more border and land and then stitched the flying eyeball which is adorable and so much fun to stitch.

The rest of this week will be given over to the mainland.

I also stitched a few rows on the Mirabilia 25th Anniversary Cameo.  Here's where that was on Friday:

And here she is now:

stitched on random 28 count hand-dyed evenweave

I'm also making slow but steady progress on my evening piece.  This is the project I stitch while The Small Boy is in the bath.  The current project is The Queen of Hearts by Mrs Peggotty.  Here's where she was last IHSW:

stitched on 22 count white hardanger

And here is where she is now:

A few people have said that they don't do Facebook and asked if I could host a link-up for them, so here it is! Just add your name and the link to your actual IHSW post, not just your blog home page.

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Finally, the next IHSW will be 18th - 20th October so make sure you note the date in your diary or come and join us in the Facebook Group - IHSW on Facebook. If you don't do Facebook then you can check in here.

IHSW Starts Here

IHSW or International Hermit and Stitch Weekend always starts on the third Friday of the month.  It's a chance to lock yourself away and focus on your stitching for the weekend.  You can take part on your blog or via the Facebook page.  Links at the bottom of this post.

By lucky chance I am not working at all this weekend so there should be plenty of stitching time to be had.  I'll be focusing on my Discworld Mappe as well as putting in a few rows on my Mirabilia new start and hopefully some FFO'ing too.  Rather than saving it all until the day before Rachel's FFO Gallery post.

This is the part of Discworld I will be working on this weekend:

The first task is to finish the paper note then stitch some border and start the flying eyeball on the edge of the piece.   Then probably back to the mainland to get some land filled in.

Here's the whole piece so far:

Here's how my Mirabilia looks:

stitched on random 28 count hand-dyed evenweave

This is the chart released by Nora Corbett to celebrate her 25th Anniversary of Mirabilia designs.  I'm just adding a length or two of DMC 310 whenever possible.

I had a small finish last night, the second in the Jessica Savage series in Cross Stitcher magazine.  The current issue is number 349 dated October 2019:

stitched one over one on 25 count blue evenweave

Here are the first two in the series together:

Finally, here's the link to the Facebook group if you want to join us over there - IHSW on Facebook or you can wait until Monday and link up here.

September Gifted Gorgeousness Link-up Post

Welcome to the September Gifted Gorgeousness link-up.  The link-up date continues to be the 15th and I will keep the link-up open until the end of each month so you have plenty of time if you are late posting.

The format remains exactly the same, there is a list of rules on the main sign-up page if you want to check what is required but basically anything connected to the word "gift" is allowed, whether it was a gift TO you or is a gift FROM you.

My main project for Gifted Gorgeousness has been my Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs, which will be a gift for my son.  This is where I left off last GG post:

This is where it was at the end of August:

Here is the portions I have been working on this week:

That will be a piece of paper pinned to the map with the credits to the author and artist.

It's a bit boring to stitch so I did some lettering too:

Widdershins

On the Discworld Widdershins is one of the four basic directions , and the opposite of turnwise. By going widdershins, you go against the turning direction of the Disc, in other words anti-clockwise.

Widdershins (sometimes withershins, widershins or widderschynnes) is a word which (usually) means counterclockwise. However, in certain circumstances it can be used to refer to a direction which is against the light, i.e. where you are unable to see your shadow. It is cognate with the German language widersinnig, i.e., "against" + "sense". The term "widdershins" was especially common in Lowland Scots, and was known in Scottish Gaelic as tuathal, which uses the same root as tuath meaning "north", the opposite of widdershins is deiseil or sunwise. In the southern hemisphere, the sun goes anti-clockwise, but in the northern hemisphere, it goes clockwise, which is where the term "sunwise" originates from. Because the sun played a highly important role in primitive religion, to go against it was considered very bad luck for sun-venerating traditions.

It was considered unlucky in former times in Britain to travel in an anticlockwise (because anti sun wise) direction around a church and a number of folk myths make reference to this superstition, e.g. Childe Rowland, where the protagonist and his sister are transported to Elfland after his sister runs widdershins round a church. There is also a reference to this in Dorothy Sayers's novels The Nine Tailors and Clouds of Witness ("True, O King, and as this isn't a church, there's no harm in going round it widdershins").

Source: L-Space

I have a gifted finish with my Summer Project - Just Nan's Summer Night.  This is stitched on gifted fabric:

stitched on 28 count Jobelan in Dragon Shades from Polstitches

And this new start is also stitched on fabric gifted by the same person  - Mouse!  This is another of my "19 in '19" and I was hankering after a new start this week so I chose this fairly small project.  The plan is to stitch a length or two of black each day.

stitched on random 28 count hand-dyed evenweave

This is what it will look like completed:

This is the chart released by Nora Corbett to celebrate her 25th Anniversary of Mirabilia designs.  By using hand-dyed fabric I am hoping to avoid stitching all the background!

Now it is your turn to show us your Gifted Gorgeousness for the month.  Please use your name or your blog name in the field and NOT the words "September Update" so I can easily see who has linked up this month.  And link to the actual post, not just your blog.  It is easier if you copy and paste the link, rather than typing freehand.

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Finally, once again I am a little bit behind in reading blogs but I will be visiting all the link-ups over this week and catch up on non-GG posts at the same time!

Finally Fully Finishing Fun for September

Hosted by Rachel the Ten Hour Stitcher

This new SAL is designed to motivate us all to do something with that box of Finished pieces instead of just storing them under the bed.  We will all be linking up on Rachel's blog on or after the 10th of each month (10 Hour Stitcher - 10th of the month).

This is what I was supposed to be showing as my FFO this month; The Sweetheart Tree Holly 'n' Hardanger:

I had a circular polystyrene shape which was the perfect size.  I cut the original fabric into a circle and drew a circle a bit bigger than the polystyrene shape.  Then I used sewing cotton to make a running stitch all the way around the pencil circle.  Place the fabric over the shape, pull the cotton drawstring, adjust it a little bit, smooth out wrinkles, pull a little bit tighter, adjust again, pull tighter, get the Large Boy to hold it while I knotted the cotton thread and call it done.

Whip stitch a piece of circular felt to the back and cover the edge with a ribbon.  That's where the problem started.  All my ribbons were too wide or too narrow.  The only piece that was the right size was the wrong colour.  So it's off to the Haberdashery to find the perfect width of ribbon.

At least I will have an FFO'd Ornament for next month!

But I still needed something for this post.  Luckily I have had a bit of a finishing flurry over the last few days so I had another project ready and waiting to be framed.  I just had to hope I had the right frame in my stash.  My luck held!

Back at the start of the Summer Holiday I completed my 10-a-Day project which was a Just Nan design called Summer Typography.  I decided that rather than start the next 10-a-Day design I would have a slightly more challenging Summer Stitch.  A sampler in six weeks.  The Random Number Generator chose Summer Night by Just Nan and I divided it up into 42 segments with a row of speciality stitches or colour per day. 

Here's the daily progress pictures:

You can really see the difference in lighting conditions each day with the change in the fabric!

The first 36 days were spent doing the DMC stitching and the final few days adding beads and ribbon.  I couldn't get the Soie Tressage recommended but did get some narrow sparkly silver ribbon which was perfect.

stitched on 28 count Jobelan in Dragon Shades from Polstitches

Trying to capture the beads and the ribbon sparkle

You wanted lots of photos?

The Final Fully Finished Framed piece:

Finally:

All the postcards have been sent out in the Summer Postcard Blog Hop. Thanks to everyone who sent a card in and who posted their card on their blog.  The links go direct to the posts so you can catch up with any you missed!

Aimetu's Stitching

Needle, Pen and Sword

Miniz Diary

Ariadne from Greece

Jocondine

Jeremiah's Mom